At least 6,600 dead pigs pulled from Shanghai’s main river

SHANGHAI — Shanghai stepped up inspections and retrieval of dead pigs from its main river after the number of carcasses found in China’s largest commercial city climbed to at least 6,600 Wednesday.

The government pulled 685 hogs from the Huangpu river as of 3 p.m., adding to the 5,916 found up until Tuesday, according to a statement on its microblog.

The discovery of the hogs comes as China’s legislature addresses issues of food safety and citizens become more vocal on the government’s handling of public health and environmental issues. The government said March 10 at a National People’s Congress meeting that it plans to create a regulator with broader authority to ensure food and drug safety and said the agriculture ministry will oversee the quality of farm products.

“The impact on sentiment is big when you see floating pigs along this river,” Jean-Yves Chow, an analyst at Rabobank International, said in Hong Kong. “It’s come to a situation where the government has to do what they need to make some improvements and create transparency among farmers.”

The Shanghai government said Sunday it’s investigating why so many dead pigs were found in the river. People in Jiaxing, a city in Zhejiang province, have been dumping hogs in the river since March 4, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Shanghai information office.

A common disease among hogs, porcine circovirus, was found in a sample taken from the river, Shanghai’s agriculture department said Monday, citing the city’s animal disease control authorities. Tests conducted on the river, which provides drinking water for some of the municipality’s 23 million residents, were negative for other diseases including foot-and-mouth, swine fever, hog cholera and blue ear, it said.